Epigenetics provides a mechanism in which the environment can interact with the genotype to produce a variety of phenotypes. These epigenetic modifications have been associated with altered gene expression and silencing of repetitive elements, and these modifications can be inherited mitotically. DNA methylation is the best characterized epigenetic mark and earlier studies have examined DNA methylation profiles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in disease. However, any disease-related signatures identified would just display differences in the relative abundance of individual cell types as each cell subset generates a unique methylation profile. Therefore is it important to identify cell- or tissue-specific changes in DNA methylation, particularly in autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
Keywords: Cell isolation; DNA extraction; DNA methylation; Flow cytometry; Illumina HumanMethylation450K BeadChip; Magnetic-activated cell sorting; Type 1 diabetes.